Ask Allie!

Ask Allie is our advice column, where you can ask all your food-related questions to get digestible answers! No question is off limits!

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I heard somewhere that when it rains or after a thunderstorm that long viili can lose it’s ropes. Have you heard of this before? Has it ever happened to you?

I just got started activating my long viili and J. Caspian Sea yogurts on Monday, 2 days ago. I’m on my second activation batch but I think I may have put in too much yogurt because it set after just 12 hours. 20 grams of yogurt into 100 ml of milk. For the activation batches what should the yogurt to milk ratio be?
Also is it bad if you mix in whey from the previous batch when you make a new one?

Since it is my first time trying these yogurts I don’t really know what texture and thickness I should expect but I did read that it should get settled after 3 batches so I’m waiting but it is raining here (hence my rain question). Hopefully it doesn’t mess with the yogurts too much.

— Jacqueline

There definitely is that old wive’s tale, but I think modern conveniences like refrigerators have stopped it from being an issue. I have read many stories of people in pre-modern times having to check with neighbors to get a restart when bad weather has destroyed their ropes, and it is absolutely true that ropey yogurts tend to be like that one person who’s always looking for something to be mad about. Except in the yogurt case, when they get mad they de-rope.

It’s an issue to all the ropey yogurts, so it’s critical to NOT disturb them while they’re fermenting. I’ve only ever lost ropes on ropey cultures when I was annoying them by checking on them with my hands instead of eyes. You will not get a de-roped yogurt to rerope unless you reintroduce those bacteria to them, so I simply view them as “new” yogurts that taste like ropey ones but aren’t. 

I’m assuming you did not read the activation instructions, because these ratios are way, way, way off. Here they are:  You should be using only 1 tablespoon (30mL) per cup (236mL) of milk at most. This is always the ratio, not just during activation. I strongly encourage you to read through the instructions on our website before you go further in order to have the best chances of success.

It’s fine to mix the whey back in. Some people prefer not to, some prefer to. It’s really just personal preference. But definitely go through the instructions today before you make your third batch, if you haven’t already. After your third batch, make sure you take samples to freeze as backups.

But no, I live in a subtropical climate where it rains frequently, and I’ve never lost any yogurt to bad weather. Accordingly, I think this particular old wive’s tale probably is just that.

Now I am starting my kombucha. Your website has instructions for activating the scoby. I have two questions that I can't seem to find:
1. What do I do after the 7 days? How do I make the Kombucha and what do I do with the scoby?
2. If I want to wait to use the scoby, what do I do? Or if I want to wait between making kombucha, can I put it in the fridge somehow to keep it alive but not actively brew?

— Mira

After the 7th day, you taste it to see if it’s fermented to your liking. If it is, you bottle all of the kombucha except what you need to start the next batch. If it’s not as fermented as you’d like it to be, then you let it go longer until it is. If it’s more fermented, then you can either bottle or discard (I like to dilute for plant watering OR let it keep going until it’s vinegar to use for cleaning or whatever) all but what you need to make the next batch (and for future batches you’ll ferment less time).

The SCOBY is completely irrelevant to fermenting kombucha. The bacteria and yeast in them is geared more strongly toward protecting the liquid than fermenting, though there are enough bacteria that ferment that you can make a new batch of kombucha with a SCOBY if you’re willing to let it sit and ferment for a few months. So I personally wouldn’t worry about the SCOBY, and I would plan to be overrun by them at some point. Although SCOBYs are a byproduct of fermentation, they do not survive refrigeration or freezing well. If you want to preserve your SCOBYs, simply keep them in a sealed, airtight jar, covered with kombucha at room temperature. If there is a good seal on your jar, no new SCOBYs will form and fermentation will halt until there’s air getting to it again. I’ve kept jars of kombucha for years this way and still had them ferment a new batch when I opened them, so I wouldn’t give any time to worrying about it lasting at room temperature.